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Last Minute Fourth of July Travel Deals

Summary

Overall prices for domestic travel are about 15% higher than last year, but tracking a similar pattern by departure date

Air travel for July 4th is over 60% more popular than Memorial Day this year

Last minute deals under $200 are still available in select markets (Tables 1 and 2)

Highest demand is to fly out for a trip leaving on the 4th of July (Friday)

Popularity and Prices

The 4th of July is a popular travel time in the US, about 60% higher than air travel for Memorial Day this year. Travel demand for 4th of July this year peaks on the 4th (Friday). Last year, July 4th fell on a Thursday and there were more searches for trips for the Wednesday before and Friday after. (Figure 1). Both this year and last year, travel demand was higher for the two weekends before the 4th and dropped off after the holiday.

Overall, prices are about 15% higher than last year, but tracking a similar trend line by departure date (Figure 2) .

Figure 1: Searches by Date (2013 and 2014)

Figure 2: Prices by Date (2013 and 2014)

The most popular destinations for 4th of July travel for trips between 6/27 - 7/6 are Las Vegas, Orlando, Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Miami, and Atlanta (Figure 3). For trips between 7/4 - 7/13, the most popular destinations, in order, are Los Angeles, Orlando, Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Miami, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Atlanta.

Figure 3: Top 10 destinations for the dates 6/27 - 7/6, with Las Vegas most popular (8.4% of demand) and Atlanta at #10 (2.4% of demand)

Figure 4: Top 10 destinations for the dates 7/4 - 7/13, with Las Vegas most popular (9.4% of demand) and Atlanta at #10 (2.3%)

Last Minute Travel Deals

If you haven’t booked yet, Hopper has found you ten popular trips that are still available under $200 (Tables 1 and 2: data based on searches conducted May 25th to 29th).

Data and Methodology

The data presented in this analysis comes from Hopper’s combined feed of Global Distribution System (GDS) data sources which includes about 10 million queries and 1 billion trips per day. Demand is represented as the number of queries not actual ticket purchases, and is calibrated across all GDS sources for each market. Lowest fare, or deal fare, is represented by the 10th percentile prices. For example if the 10th percentile price is $800 dollars it means that only 10% of trips are priced at or below this price.